Gib Mathers

Thanks to successful community fundraising campaigns, snowplows from Wyoming will plow the east and south entrances of Yellowstone National Park, allowing them to open on schedule, May 3 and May 10, respectively.

"We’re going to get started with the final (14-A widening) phase this year,” said Cody Beers, spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Transportation.

Beers was referring to the final stretch of U.S. 14-A between Powell and Cody awaiting construction work that will transform most of the remaining two lanes to five lanes. The project has spanned more than a decade of off-and-on highway construction.

A bill that might aid drivers pushing the speed limit a bit traveled through the Wyoming Senate and was parked in a House committee for consideration today (Tuesday).

Introduced by Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody, Senate File 57 would raise the posted speed limit in 65 mph zones to 70 on some highways, if the Wyoming Department of Transportation deems it safe based on engineering and traffic analysis.

It passed the Senate Jan. 22 and was referred to a House committee Jan. 25.

If the bill goes through this time around, the Powell Recreation District will gain possession of the shooting range land currently owned by the Bureau of Land Management.

The 322-acre shooting range presently in use is south of Powell on Road 5 and Lane 10. The district has had a special recreation permit with the bureau to operate the shooting range. Heart Mountain Rod and Gun Club has been under contract with the district to manage the facility.

A bill upping the price of hunting and fishing licenses to avert a budget deficit predicted by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department died in committee Friday.

The Wyoming House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee voted down House Bill 136. Rep. John Freeman, D-Green River, was the only representative in the nine-member committee to vote in favor of it.